Returning
by StarletteSky
Summary: When Tally's arm is irreparably damaged, she knows she has only one chance at staying Special- returning to the city she thought she would never see again, and facing the person who made her what she is. Now complete!
1. Chapter 1

_Tally fell, gracefully, like a cat. Directly below her, some mag-lev tracks. Not a problem. It's not the softest spot to land, but she can handle it. The ground collides with her body, like in slow motion. Her special muscles barely feel the pain. She hasn't stopped moving, but she is already calculating her next move. She'll get even with Fasto for pushing her. We'll see who's laughing soon, Fasto._

_ She tenses, preparing to spring to her feet and rejoin the group. Something is not right though. The mag-lev tracks she lays on are vibrating with an increased tempo. The world slows down. Tally's arms act faster than her brain, pushing her head and body out of the way. Not fast enough though. The train steams towards her, growing exponentially in her field of vision. Tally's eyes meet Shay's. There's nothing she can do. _

"Tally-wa!"

The next thing Tally was aware of was Shay half-carrying half-dragging her away from the tracks. The rest of the Cutters were on the ground too, Fasto wearing a horrified look of apology.

"Tally, look, I'm so sorry! I didn't think that would happen! I--"

Tally stopped listening, fighting to control the rush of special-headedness she was experience. If she lost it now, Fasto and his pretty-like comments would find themselves pinned to the ground in a fit of rage. The automated mag-lev was sliding away into the distant horizon, its computerguidance system completely un aware that it had just run over someone.

Shay led a her to a nearby rock. Tally stumbled and sat heavily on it. Was she choking? She couldn't fill her lungs all the way, and the air she was getting in each wheezy breath felt like there was no oxygen in it. The monochrome palate of the dessert was beginning to blur, her friends' faces mixing together with the dust and the rocks. She was aware of a flurry of activity around her, voices, panicked, too loud.

"Tally are you alright?" Shay was shaking her, bring her dazed mind back to reality. Tally suddenly realized that an awful lot of time had elapsed since she had sat down, that she couldn't account for. "Can you hear me, Tally-wa?" Shay's voice was uncharacteristically anxious.

It took Tally a while to work out what the words were.

"Mmm yes, I'm fine. I mean, I can hear you fine." Tally slurred her words together, stumbling through the sentence.

Fasto's face suddenly filled her vision. This was all his fault, Tally realized, if he hadn't pushed her off her hoverboard… her special instinct roared up as she prepared to hurt him. Strangely, her limbs weren't responding to her commands. She slumped weakly on the rock.

Fasto was talking now. He had to repeat the question several times before Tally understood him

"Where does it hurt?"

She tiredly took a mental survey, trying to locate the injured spot. It was not an easy thing to do, because after being thrown off her hoverboard and falling 30 feet to the ground, her _whole_ body hurt. She finally located the epicenter of the pain; her lower right arm.

"Arm," Tally just managed to choke out this one word with her minimal oxygen supply.

Shay and Fasto looked down at the injury. "Oh," breathed Shay. That couldn't be good. Even with her non-special brain, Shay was not easily phased.

Tally took a surreptitious glance down at the spot. The sneak suit had shorted out, and the scales had turned a back to their natural black. It took a lot of force to do that to a sneak suit.

Her arm was no longer round, it had taken on a sickeningly flattened shape.

There was a silence, then Fasto said "Tally, I don't think we can fix this with the medi-pac,"

That was obvious. "But… That's what nanos are for," Tally said. Seeing the severity of her wound had suddenly cleared the dizzy daze of pain and made her icy. There were still dancing lights in the corners of her eyes, and she was having difficulty keeping her voice straight.

"Um, Tally. You know there are things that the nanos can't fix, right? That mag-lev _crushed_ you bone. All the nanos in the world can't fix that." asked Shay. Unnoticed to Tally, Fasto injected a syringe into her shattered right arm.

Tally pretended not to hear Shay. Her mind was abruptly foggy again, but not a painful foggy. She felt like she was falling asleep…. she felt bubbly-headed. She fought the sensation with all her remaining strength.

"I'm _fine_, really guys," She had meant to sound confident, but her voice came out soft and distant.

"err, Tally-wa, I think you should…--" But Tally had stopped listening.

The sun was starting to set on their dessert campsite, and while they had been talking Ho and Tachs had built a fire. Tally was feeling oddly fatigued, like she was fighting to keep her head above water. Numbness was consuming her muscles, like the time she had jumped off the cliff wearing only crash bracelets. She cut Shay off, who had probably been giving her a middle-pretty lecture on safety or something.

"Uh huh, sure, what ever you say. Well, I think I'll have some Padthi and hit the sack."

Tally jumped up with her usual confidence, but it was only a false front. She immediately started blacking out. She grabbed wildly for Fasto's shoulder to support herself, but for some reason she couldn't make her arm work. Shay caught her and forced her back onto the rock. They exchanged a look.

Shay got Tally's attention by looking seriously into her eyes. "Tally, are listening? You've _shattered_ your bone! you have to take it easy." Her mouth was drawn into a tight line and her eyes were cold and intense.

"Of course I haven't!" Shay was acting awfully pretty-headed. Had she forgotten how unbreakable specials were? Couldn't she see that Tally was absolutely fine? "You _can't_ break Special bones!"

"Yes you can. And we can't fix them," said Fasto gravely.

"Why not? Nanos fix everything else, why not bones to?" This conversation was getting tiring. All Tally wanted to do now was sleep.

"Tally, nanos can only fix organic materials. Our bones are made of ceramic." Shay said gently.

"Yeah, but you cant break ceramic bone, so how could I have broke mine?"

She was slurring her words. Tally could feel he brain getting foggier by the second. Shay and Fasto looked at each other again and nodded. They each placed one of Tally's arms around their shoulders and supported as they took her over to her sleeping bag. Shay answered her question

" Mag-lev trains don't actually make contact with the rails, they used massive magnetic forces to keep themselves floating along. Tons and tons of weight is being forced down, while the track have to force it back up again. The pressure from the repelling magnetic forces is _definitely_ enough to break ceramic bones"

"oh, right. whatever," Tally said sleepily "good night."

* * *

When Tally awoke, it was still dark. The other Cutters were spread around the remains of the campfire., which was giving off a faint orange light. Fasto and Tachs were sprawled out in their sleeping bags, but Shay and Ho had retained the Special habit of sleeping upright.

Whatever pain-killer Fasto had given her had worn off completely. Her arm was beginning to sting, and protested loudly every time she so much as thought about moving it. Tally could feel the nanos working, but how long would it be before they wore off? Before she had to endure the full feeling of a smashed bone?

Tally surveyed the surrounding area. In her opinion, the desert looked much better a night. The sky was an inky black and every star was visible. It wasn't like that back in the city. In the city, the spires of New-Pretty Town had shone all night, obscuring the eternal stars with an ephemeral and superficial glow. Tally remembered the many long nights she had spent as an ugly, dreaming about her new life in Pretty-Town. Now, she felt, she would rather be no where else in the world then out under the open sky.

The moon was almost full, and cast mysterious shadows off the mesas and plateaus. Tally suddenly had the sensation of being completely and utterly alone in the world. Four of the five people she would trust her life to were asleep at her feet, and the fifth was working with her mother on an urgent project. There was not so much as a cricket chirp in the darkness, not a breath of wind. It was very icy-making, being so isolated.

In the forest around her city, there was always some noise. A squirrel, the tall trees creaking in the gently breeze, the river roaring, David snoring… but out here it seemed that she was the only living thing in the whole world.

Tally was rudely brought down to earth by a sharp twinge from her pulverized arm. If pain was anything to judge by, it was clear that the nanos _couldn't_ fix what ever was wrong with her. Shay had been right, her bones were _definitely_ broken, probably ground to dust by the mag-lev, or else the nanos would have been able fixed what ever was wrong with her by now.

Tally sighed, filling her lungs with the crisp night air. There was no way for special bone to fix themselves. They were made of a ceramic-carbon fiber compound. The repair nanos could only fix organic substances, like muscle or skin. There was no pill to take, no splint to wear, that could fix what had happened to her arm.

And until it was fixed, her arm would be utterly useless.

Tally vaguely wondered how long she could carry on with the Cutters if she only had use of one arm. How ridiculous that would be, Tally Youngblood, Hero of the Mind rain-- a cripple. She wouldn't be able to fulfill her promise of keeping the new world in check. Tally saw herself lagging behind everyone else, her arm in a sling over her sneak suit, using a crutch to get around.

Besides, there weren't enough pain killers in the _world_ to keep her butchered nerves in check. Not only would her arm be worthless, it would constantly be causing her massive amounts of agony. She couldn't live like that!

No, she _had_ to get it fixed, and soon too, before there was permanent damage.

Since natural healing was out, she would have to go to a city. Most cities were dead-set against "morphological violations" like hers and the Cutters'. They either lived in fear of them, or bent on eradicating them from the earth. There was no way she would _ever_ walk freely into any of their hospitals. They would probably agree to help, then turn her into a bubble-head while she was unconscious.

Deigo would probably be _willing_ to help her, the Cutters were pretty popular for their heroic actions there, but would they be _able_ to fix her bones? Deigo didn't have any specials, so they had no experience with ceramic bones. The point of surgeons in Deigo was to cater to the pretties' insane tastes in surgery, from turning themselves into walking cacti to owning an extra set of legs.

Tally shuddered at the idea of how un-special it would be if the surgeon botched the job, leaving her handicapped for the rest of her life. The mere thought was enough to give her icy shivers.

Tally didn't have the time _or_ energy to go trapeasing around the continents, or even the world, in search of a city that had the expertise to fix her arm. If she were to find a city, high chances she wouldn't trust them enough to let them perform surgery on her. She couldn't go around interviewing prospective candidates on their opinions of specials.

The more Tally thought about it, she could only think of one person who she could go to.

Dr. Cable.

At first, the idea sent pangs of horror down her spine. Everything she had learned and experienced in the last few years was screaming at her never to trust Dr. Cable again. And how could she? Dr. Cable, who had used her, lied to her and cheated her so many times? When she pictured the evils of the pre-mind rain, it was Dr. Cable's cruel-pretty face she saw.

But as she thought about it more, under the canopy of the inky night, Tally recalled the memory of their last meeting.

Laying on the floor, gasping after nearly suffocating in an operating tank, she had wiped the goo from her eyes and been shocked to see that it was Dr. Cable who had rescued her from despecialization.

Of course, Dr. Cable was no longer the indomitably cold, cruel figure that she had been as head of the specials. Maddy's cure had worked wonders, and had turned Dr. Cable into a much less severe, tempered person, and had taken away her icy indifference to others' problems.

Nonetheless, Dr. Cable was bitter about the mind rain. Pretty brains were being cured, and the world was changing quickly. Too quickly, in her oppinion. Cities were expanding into the wild, with nothing to stop the dangerous shifts toward a new Rusty society.

These changes were alarming to Dr. Cable. She had devoted her entire life to maintaining strict order in their city, even by subduing free _thought_ if necessary. She had created a perfectly structured, peaceful and prospering, if brainless utopia; and now she was witnessing her life's work crumble around her. This is why she had risked herself to save Tally from despecialization.

Laying helpless on the cold hospital floor, Tally had met a new side of Dr. Cable, a tired, reflective, _worried_ side of Dr. Cable.

_"Is that why you're here, to blame me for everything?"_

_ "No, I'm here to let you go."_

_Tally looked up- this had to be a trick, some way for Dr. Cable to get her final revenge. But the thought of being out under the open sky again sent a painful ping of hope through her._

_ Tally swallowed "But didn't I, you know, destroy your world?"_

_ Dr. Cable stared at her for a long time, with her unfocused, watery eyes. "Yes, but you're the last one, Tally… Shay and the others are no more right than I am. The council has desecialized almost all of us."_

_ Tally nodded. "But why me?"_

_ "You're the only real Cutter left," Dr. Cable said "the last of my specials designed to live in the wild, to exist outside the cities. You can escape this, you can disappear forever. I don't want my work to become extinct. Please Tally…_

_ Tally blinked. She'd never thought of her self as some sort of endangered animal. But she wasn't about to argue. The thought of freedom made her head spin. _

_ "Just get out Tally… leave, and for my sake, keep yourself special. The world might need you one day."_

To Dr. Cable, Tally represented the last piece of her handiwork left in the world. To her inflated ego, Tally was a living monument to her genius and devotion. She had poured all her knowledge, innovation and perseverance into the specials program. And now Tally was the last pure example of her brilliance. Dr. Cable would rather _die_ then see her life's work destroyed. In a warped way, Dr. Cable cared about Tally, at least about the special parts of her.

As bogus as going back was, It was Tally's only option. Dr. Cable had medical experience with specials, and she could her trust her not to change her back into a bubble head. Dr. Cable would cut off her own hand before she'd do that.

If she was going to have her arm fixed, and fixed _right, _she was going to have to return to the source.

Now all Tally had to do was convince Shay.


	2. Chapter 2

The desert morning dawned calm and gray. A faint collection of dew had accumulated over the night, chilling the air. Tally could close her stinging eyes and imagine she was back in the northern forests.

She had not slept all night. She had been painfully reminded about her mangled arm every time she had so much as blinked an eyelid. If she put even the slightest amount of pressure, the broken nerve endings in the bone fragments would start screaming at her to stop. So she had stayed up, her crushed arm cradled in her lap.

The loneliness of the night sky, and the gravity of her situation, had given Tally an unusual twinge of homesickness. As beautiful as the rocks and sand were, she still longed for the woods. Pine trees and flowing rivers, fertile soil and luscious plants that filled the air with an ever present natural perfume of freshness and life… In some ways, the forest around the city had been a companionable friend. She could count on them to always be there, all ways different each time, but eternally the same. She missed the natural setting around her home.

Make that _former_ home, she thought. The city officials had made it quite clear that she was never welcome back. That land was now forbidden to her.

All around their campsites, small animals were emerging from the dens and nests, to take advantage of the cooler part of the day. The once barren desert was suddenly filled with life. Through her haze of pain, Tally spotted an armadillo trundling out from a cleft in a rock, and with her augmented sight, a family of field mice scurrying out from under a prickly desert cactus. Through their many travels, the cutters didn't get to stick around long enough to get to know that land they were living on.

Speaking of Cutters, they were now waking, too.

Sachs woke first, yawning and rolling onto his back. He rolled off his sleeping bag, and onto a particularly sharp dessert stone. He let out a tired groan, groped for the rock sleepily and chucked it across the campsite. It hit Ho, who was sleeping in fetal position. Ho woke up with a yell and jumped to his feet. He took a few powerful strides across camp to confront Sachs, but tripped over Fasto, who had been completely covered in his sleeping bag. Fasto sought revenge by seized Ho's leg and pulled him down. The ensuing wrestling match woke Shay.

Tally, who hadn't moved from her rocky perch all night shut her weary eyes to give the impression that she had been sleeping.

Shay broke up the tussle and assigned the jobs for the morning routine. The boys dispersed, with sarcastic mumbles of "yes, _boss,_" Their group no longer had an official leader, but Shay was still a very good task master.

Fasto and Ho made up and went off to search for scraps of wood to re kindle their fire. The dessert wasn't exactly filled with trees, so they grabbed their boards to scour the land from the air. Sachs set off with a couple canteens strapped around his shoulders to go collect water for breakfast. The stream they had found was atop a set of rocky bluffs, and so Sachs decided to climb up to get it. He could have hoverboarded up there, the mesas were filled with a rusty red glow indicating rich iron deposits, but scaling a sheer cliff was _far_ more icy-making. Tally envied him. If her bone were whole, she would have raced him to the top.

With the other Cutters gone, just Tally and Shay were left in camp. There was silence for a moment, and Tally could hear the woops and yells of Ho and Fasto off in the distance.

Shay walked over to her and put her hand on her shoulder, preparing to shake her gently awake. Tally gave up the pretense and opened her eyes. Shay's sensitive fingers could tell that her heart rate was too elevated for her to be actually sleeping.

"Tally-wa, how are you?" Shay's voice was filled with genuine concern. Tally realized she'd missed having Shay truly care about her wellbeing. While they had both been special-brained, showing compassion had been a sign of weakness.

"Erm, yeah, I'm fine" Tally said unconvincingly. The light of the rising sun was causing her tired eyes to squint. She hoped the totally bogus bags under her eyes didn't show.

"You really don't look to good you know," said Shay "Tally-wa, please listen. I know you said you would never have surgery again, but you need to get you arm fixed. you can't go on like this!" The expression on her face showed deep worry building up under the surface.

"Where, Shay?" asked Tally wearily. Shay would not agree to her plan, unless all the other possible options had been thoroughly exhausted.

"You could go to Deigo--"

Tally had expected Shay to say this. Deigo had become like the Cutter's unofficial home base. Deigo was where they went to replenish their supplies, and it was where they always tended to head after finishing a mission. The Cutters were the heroes of the city, and it was the one place where they were welcomed with open arms. If they had nothing to do for a couple days, they would head to Deigo for some R&R.

It was the one place the other Cutters felt they could let their guards down. Not Tally, though. Deep down inside, she still harbored a grudge against Deigo. It was there she had been defeated for the first time, by ridiculous wardens dressed as bumble bees, after being betrayed by her own friends. Deigo captured, labeled a 'morphological violation' and nearly been despecialized.

"Shay," Tally stopped Shay "I can't go to Diego. Remember what happened last time I was in their hospital?"

"Well its different now, Tally-wa, they wouldn't try to despecialize you _now_." Shay smiled reassuringly, "Besides, _we_ wouldn't let them. We'd stand right by you during surgery, and glare at them the whole time. They wouldn't _think_ of doing anything with us around." She grinned, devilish light dancing in her eyes. Tally was suddenly reminded of the old days, the deadly, dangerous, all-to-happy-to-break-the-faces-of-pretties Shay. She was also reminded of Shays fierce loyalty, both then and now.

Tally hated to burst her bubble.

"But Shay-la, Deigo doesn't have any specials."

"So?"

"So…They've never made a special, so they don't know how to fix specials either." Shay opened her mouth to protest. Tally continued.

"To them I'm just a "morphological violation". Sure, they'd be able to _remove_ my bones, but they'd be _clueless_ when it comes to repairing them."

"hmmm." Shay bit her lip. There was a long pause. The worried look had returned to her face. "Tally-wa, we have to get your bones fixed _somehow_. Ho says that if you wait too long, then the muscles in that arm will start to die off, and you'll loose use of it forever."

_Losing_ her arm? That was almost a fate worse then death. Tally imagined how horrible that would be, special-brained but not special-bodied, constantly trying to catch up to the other Cutters, but always dragging behind. She shivered, even though the desert sun was heating the air around her. It was time to get serious.

"Shay-la, I know where I can go to get my arm fixed."

"Where?"

"To someone that I can trust not to despecialize me while I'm out, someone who knows how to repair with special damaged bones."

"Who!?"

"To Dr. Cable"

Shay sucked in her breath sharply. "Tally! You can't go there! Remember how she use to used us? If you go back, she'll turn you back into, I don't know, her _minion_ again!" Shay was as close to hysterics as a special could get. Her eyes had dilated wide, and she was shaking Tally's shoulders.

Tally gently removed Shay's hands, trying to make her see reason.

"Shay, this is the only way! I can't sit around waiting for someone to think of _something_. If I leave it too long, then I'll be a cripple for the rest of my life, I have to go!"

"No Tally-wa. No way. This is _Dr. Cable_ we're talking about!"

"Shay, you didn't see her. She's changed, she _rescued_ me. She not the person you're remembering."

"Don't you get it? We _can't_ trust her. Its too dangerous." Shay was looking straight into her eyes, pleading with her.

"Shay-la, you weren't there, you don't know! She's changed."

Tachs and Fasto were back now, unloading firewood from their hoverboards, and eavesdropping in on their argument.

Shay was unconvinced. "Tally, she's dangerous. You can _not_ go back to her."

"Go back to who?" Fasto asked, nosing in on their conversation and pulling up a seat casually on a rock. Tally wanted to tell him to bug off, but Shay answered before she could got to it.

"Tally wants to go back to Dr. Cable to get her arm fixed."

Fasto's mouth opened wide in a silent O. "What! No, Tally, you can't do that! She'd trick you into doing her bidding or something, you can't go!"

"Tally, _please, _ promise that you won't go back." Shay was deadly serious. Her intense gaze made Tally shiver like she was a littlie again, in trouble with the teacher. Shay was pulling out all the stops to get her to give up her plan.

Tally was resolute though. She had spent most of the night thinking about it, and her choice was clear. She had no other options, and time was running out.

Tally crossed the fingers of her good hand behind her back. "Sure, what ever you say," She sighed, feigning sulky acceptance "I promise I won't go back to Dr. Cable."

"Good." Shay was still surveying her intently, as if looking for the tell-tale signs of falsehood on her features. At last she was satisfied, and turned away to help Tachs with the fire.

She seemed to have forgotten that with her special brain, Tally had the ability to fool even a polygraph machine.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hiya! Sorry this took a little while to post, I'm am experiencing writers' block. I have a few more chapters written after this one, so I'll post those too after i have them cleaned up. Also, if you notice anything of have any suggestions please let me know!**

**Oh yeah, I forgot to add a disclaimer at the begging of the story; I own nothing! (well, except for my computer, my keyboard, my uglies books... =D)

* * *

  
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The day passed in a hazy cloud. Looking back, Tally couldn't distinguish between event and another, her whole day blurred together in a murky hash.

The stinging in Tally's arm got worse as the repair nanos ran out of anesthetic. Even though she spent the long hours planted on her rocky stool, she became exhausted by the end of the day. It took all her focus and energy to fight the pain.

Before she was hurt, the Cutters had been on route to a city named Tario, to pay their rusty-style, pollution factories a _special_ visit. Tally had been excited to go do some butt-kicking, but is seemed like the plans were on hold. There seemed to be an unanimous unspoken agreement among the other Cutters to postpone that mission until they had figured out what to do with Tally.

All day they lounged around the remains of the campfire, eating, talking and passing the time any way they could. This was not particularly innate activity for special-brained people. Specials, able to stalk prey over miles of forest, spending months away from civilization, were naturally anti-social. They were designed to be able to run for miles, living off very little, and exemplify feats of endurance beyond imagination. Yet, here they were, lounging around like a gaggle of bubble-heads with hangovers. It was driving Tally crazy.

In addition, the other Cutters wouldn't discuss her injury in front of her, presumably not wanting to worry her with their fears and comments. Rather, they treated her like a delicate little pretty patient, who couldn't handle any more trauma. If they wanted to talk about her injury, they would all gather in a little cluster away from camp. They would then whisper and glance at her, as if she wasn't _perfectly_ capable of understanding what they were doing.

The exclusion wanted to make her teach them a lesson about just how capable even an _injured _special was, but she restrained herself, knowing that they were just acting out of concern for her.

She found the manner that they were treating her was seriously annoying. The special cure hadn't pretty-fide their brains, but it seemed to have made them irrational when during dilemmas. They were all letting their emotions get in the way of logical thinking when it came to Tally's condition.

The other Cutters, especially Fasto were all being super attentive to Tally's needs. He was constantly inquiring if she needed some water, or if he could get her anything. Even though Tally could managed to get up and walk by herself, he, or one of the other Cutters, would insist on helping her up and accompanying her everywhere. If she so much as shifted her weight, all conversation ceased, as everyone prepared to offer a shoulder or catch her if she fell. It was enough to make her want tot pull her hair out.

By noon, she was sick to death of it all. It had been a day and a half since she had been hoverboarding, and frankly, the desert scenery was starting to bore her. The Cutters had spent the last year or so traveling around the world, never spending more than a week in each city, constantly on the move. Yet she hadn't moved more then ten feet from this rock _all_ _day_.

She was also getting a impatient. Tally _hated_ wasting time, especially when there was a city that needed a good ol' dose of reigning in. The Cutters were sitting around on their butts, while rusty factories were belching pollutants into the atmosphere! This fact was like an itch she couldn't scratch. How could she fulfill her promise of protecting the earth, if she was stuck in the middle of nowhere with a broken arm?

The desert shadows lengthened, and by increasing frequency of the Cutters' clusters, they still hadn't found an answer. For Tally, the idea of spending another day like this was anguishing. She voiced her suggestion again, hoping that it would meet more enthusiasm the second time around.

Tally figured that she should give then a bit longer to think things over and to conclude that her solution was the best, and only, one. If they agreed, great, they could go with her. If they didn't agree, then she was still planning to slip off in the dark of night, regardless. Honestly, their answers sounded like she'd be choosing the latter option.

"No Tally-wa, you can't do that." Shay said, standing beside her rocky seat and talking down to her like she was a misbehaving littlie.

"Tally, I think you need to rest. You're not thinking clearly." was Ho's opinion.

Fasto looked pointedly at the other Cutters, and they formed into bunch to discuss her. Again.

When night finally came, the Cutters gathered around the campfire. They munched their Spagbol, Padthi, and Indicurry silently. Having spent most of the few years constantly in each other's company, they really didn't have anything to reflect on. Ugly stories were totally bogus, pretty stories were bubble-head, and they had all _been there_ when the special stories happened. After spending the whole day in the same place doing nothing, it wasn't like they could chat about the day's events for very long.

After a few minuets, the conversation died away. Tally waited, letting the oppressive silence build up. Finnally, when she calculated she had reached maximum effect, she broach the subject of their numerous discussions.

"So, have you guys figured out what to do with me yet?"

Shay, who had been gazing absently into the fire, looked up, frowning. "No, Tally, we haven't."

Tally opened her mouth, to offer up her idea again, but Shay cut her off before she could start.

"But we know you can't go to Dr. Cable. We just can't trust her!"

Tally was going to continue the argument, but he decided she had no chance of swaying them. She had her plan, and if she had to go with out their blessing, so be it. It wouldn't be the first time she had gone against Shay's wishes.

Tally's uncharacteristic lack of comeback was misinterpreted as fatigue. Fasto offered to help her to her sleeping bag. She was preparing to resist, when she realized she should probably play the part of a frail and needy invalid. Shay knew her too well to believe Tally was just giving up, so Tally had to make Shay think her injury was so bad she didn't have a choice. If they didn't think she could move, they wouldn't post a gaurd to make sure she didn't run off. Tally didn't think she could take on another special in her weakened state.

So she passively allowed him to lead her to her sleeping bag, moving as fast as a crumblie, and dramatically moaning with pain all the way.

When Tally pushed the sleeping bag off her, the moon had already risen over the plateaus. The other Cutters seemed to be out cold, huddled under thermal sleeping bags. After the mind rain, they had all gotten lazy. Rather then following the special tradition of setting their internal systems to rouse them every ten minuets, Tally knew they would only ping them selves every two hours. Plenty of time for her to sneak away.

_ That's what you get for loosing your special-brained paranoia_, thought Tally.

Stealthy, she collected the supplies she had packed up during the day. Her hoverboard had been charging all day, and its battery was full.

Tally would be taking minimal supplies with her, so that they wouldn't weight her down, so as not to deprive the other Cutters of what they needed. She felt bad deep down inside about betraying their trust, but she knew that their emotion-brained thinking was preventing them from seeing her only possible option. Even if she waited for them to work something out, it might be too late. Even now, her arm screamed at her if she tried to lift even a packet of Spagbol.

And her pain could only escalate. If they didn't want her to have a broken arm forever, they would come around to the same conclusion she had. Eventually.

She hoped.

Otherwise, it might take them a long time to forgive her.

Tally took her hoverboard out into the desert before she got on, so that the sound of the lifting fans wouldn't wake the others. Her arm hurt beyond imagination, but rather than blacking out, the pain only made her more icy-headed. She smiled with savage, special-brained pleasure at her heist. Fasto and Shay thought she was weak and helpless-- how she would prove them wrong.

Tally had no trouble controlling the hoverboard. It was steered by a rider shifting her weight, not by arm movement. In fact, her arm hurt _less_. Maybe it was finally having something other to do them sitting and dwelling on the pain. Maybe it was because her body knew she was actively seeking a cure, and no longer felt the need to remind her about her injury in such strong terms.

Tally's world began to blur as time slowly passed. After miles and miles of the nighttime sand and stars, the sun at last began to rise, casting a soft pink glow over Tally's right side.

She smiled, imagining Shay and the others finding her missing sleeping bag. She could see them totally panicking, and for some reason the idea was totally laughter-making. _Like bubblies with broken nails_, She thought, strangely contented. The act of doing something so rebellious, so _bold_, was like electricity flowing through her veins.

Her pretty-minded friends were all probably having nightmares about her lying paralyzed somewhere, too impaired by her injuries to move, rather than her majestically soaring over the fields of White Weed.

The special side of Tally's mind applauded the idea that she had used their normal-brain-ness to her advantage. They had underestimated _her_, the last true special. That would show them! A queasy feeling swooped through her stomach just them. Why was thinking like this? Her friend _were_ specials, they had just let fear and worry cloud their vision. She fought to control her special-brained feelings.

Now in her mental picture, she saw her friends valiantly searching high and low for her. They would start by circling the camp, but eventually they would realize that a broken arm _didn't _stop her from using a hoverboard.

Tally knew in her heart that they would come after her, so she flew straight on through the day, not bothering to sleep.

She had to stick whole-heartedly with her decision, or else she would never make it back to the city. Or at least, never make it there _before_ her arm became permanently crippled.


	4. Chapter 4

Day turned to night, and to day again. Tally stopped focusing on the details of the grounds. At one point she realized the ground below her was no longer white, but covered in green grass. Then came small bushes. After that she stopped paying attention al together.

Tally's world shrunk to simple verbs. They scrolled like a chant through her brain.

_ Fly, steer, navigate, ignore the pain._

_ Fly, steer, navigate, ignore the pain._

She hadn't eaten for a few days, but she didn't feel the grumblings in her stomach over the deafening roar of pain from her arm. Only twice had she stopped for water. She couldn't even remember what it felt like to sleep. How many nights had she been flying? Three, four?

Unconsciously, she had become paranoid about other Cutters catching up to her and stopping her. In her frazzled mind, she connected them catching her, to becoming un-special. That was enough to kick in her special willpower and endurance, and so she kept flying, never stopping, never slowing.

After what seemed like years of travel, she started to recognize the land beneath her. The sight of recognizable land was like a wake up call for her exhausted mind. She even started recognizing land marks.

There was the tree she had nearly run into on her way back from Deigo, there's where she had camped running away to the smoke as an ugly. Her throat clenched as she recognized the spot where Zane and the Crims had spent their first night away from the city, and where she had saved their hoverboards.

She slowed down as she flew over the Rusty Ruins. As she caught sight of the city, her thoughts were suddenly crystal clear. The view of the familiar, but now forbidden, land of her youth was icy-making. When she had fled from despecialization, she understood that she was giving up her chance at ever being accepted back. She had been fully prepared to never return, but here she was, once again.

From way up here on her hoverboard, she could see all the places of her youth, her old ugly dorm room, Cleopatra Park, and in the far distance, the spires of new Pretty town. Something caught in her throat. Whether she liked it or not, she had spent most of her life here, and this place had turned her into what she was now.

Tally might have surveyed the city for an indefinite amount of time, but the pain was building again. Why was she here again? She couldn't quite seem to remember.

She though through it, and when she hit on it, a spark of adrenaline coursed up her spine, energizing her again. She had to get her busted arm fixed. She tiredly readied her self to set off again. Then, with a confused jolt, she realized that she didn't actually know where she was headed. She had no _idea _where Dr. Cable lived.

Back in the special days, the only place Tally would have seen Dr. Cable was at the Special Circumstances Head Quarters, but Tally some how doubted she could find her there now. Tally doubted that the Head Quarters even _existed_ now. After the specials program had been shut down, the city officials had probably recycled the building and tuned it into something else. That was out then, unless she wanted to land in a nest of special-hating city buffs.

Through the weary buzz, Tally abruptly heard a Citizen Safety drone, a CSD, making its report. Flying over the Rusty Ruins, she had automatically tuned her skintenna into the city network, out of habit. Being able to listen in to the private city network was a leftover perk of being a special. They must have changed most of their frequencies though, because she couldn't access the city records anymore.

Tally jumped internally when she heard the drone report its position. The CSD was less than 100 meters away!

Tally slipped onto the branch of a large tree, pulling the hoverboard up against her chest. Letting the city catch her now would be such a bogus anti-climax. Even this simple maneuver, thought, sent a new wave of icy pain surging through her. She concentrated on ignoring it.

The drone was about 20 meters away, and scanning in her area. It used visual and infrared scans to look for anomalies in the landscape, so in her sneak suit, Tally was invisible. She prayed that it didn't have any unnoticed rips in it, like that time she had been humiliated in Deigo.

When the CSD was satisfied that there was no one hiding behind Tally's tree, it moved on to begin surveying the next portion of the perimeter. Tally was struck with an unexpected stroke of genius. She suddenly knew how she could find Dr. Cable's address.

Carefully maneuvering her hoverboard out of the trees, Tally snuck up on the unsuspecting drone. Its optical sensors were pointing away from her, on tp the next chuck of forest. After all, it had already deduced, wrongly, that there was nothing in the woods behind it.

When Tally was close enough, she sprung off her board and onto the CSD. It bucked wildly attempting to throw her off. Tally was surprised by the resilience her drained muscles were showing, but nonetheless got to work shutting the drone of quickly.

She pulled out the knife from her thigh sheath, and used it to wedge open a panel on the drone's back. From her ugly, city-tricking days, she knew exactly how to knock one of these things out. Tally used her knife to slash through the wires coming off the main motor function circuit board. The Citizen Safety drone became limp and lifeless in her arms. She sighed, relaxing her shot muscles before getting to work.

Tally knew that it was that it was the job of CSDs to make sure that people were where they were supposed to be. That meant finding lost littlies, look out for crumbilies, and most of all, to make sure that uglies didn't sneak into pretty-town. At least, that _had_ been their jobs before the mind rain. Now it looked like they had all been converted to Perimeter-Watch drones. She hoped that this drone still carried the same information it had before, or else her trick wouldn't work.

In order to know who was supposed to be where, all Citizen Safety drones carried and address list of all the people in the city. She managed to patch into the city files, using her hacking knowledge and handful of leftover passwords to by pass all the firewalls. Soon, she had the lists uploaded to her eye screen.

With her tired figures, Tally flipped clumsily through the drone's information on Dr. Cable. Strangely, rather then living in Crumbville, Dr. Cable now lived in an odd twilight area between the city offices and the middle-pretty suburbs. Curiously, under the section about her occupation, was entered the status 'NA'.

The drone also had bizarre instruction about where she was an wasn't permitted. Her restrictions were more severe then even an ugly's. Under no circumstances was she allowed to go hiking outside the city, she couldn't visit set foot in the hospital grounds unless she was sick, and she couldn't go out before dawn or after dusk. In fact, it looked like if she was seen going _anywhere_, the droid was supposed to send a report to the network. Tally had never known anyone to be so vigorously watched like that before.

Tally released the now lifeless drone and set off across the city. The confrontation with the drone had zapped the last of her strength. She hadn't slept of eaten in she-couldn't-even-remember when. The pain in her arm was the only thing that was stopping her from passing out.

Her hoverboard skimmed dangerously low to roof tops, until the city grid kicked in and countered for her recklessness. Tally was extremely lucky that it was raining. No one was outside to see her, which was fortunate because she was making no attempt to stay out of sight. She hadn't even camouflaged her sneak suit to new-pretty style clothing. If anyone were looking up, it would be incredibly obvious who the black-clad, rain streaked figure on the special-requisition hoverboard was. Then it would only be a matter of time before the authorities arrived and she was shipped off to despecialization.

In the end, Tally managed to get to the coordinates she had stolen from the drone. She landed on a section of roof over a balcony of the address. With the last dregs of her brain power, she decided to check weather it really _was_ Dr. Cable's house before barging in on some unsuspecting middle-pretty.

Arduously, with an amount of energy she didn't know she had, Tally leaned foreword and peeked her head over the overhanging of the balcony. From her upside-down perch, she scanned the room. Inside, she saw a gray-haired figure stooped over a desk. Tally's exhausted eyes hadn't had time to focus before a surge of fatigue and pain from her arm caused her to overbalance.

Frantically she tried to grab onto the lip of the roof and haul her self back up, but she couldn't support her weight with her tired left arm. Her right arm hung limply, cursing her for trying to use it. She swung forward, her grippy shoes banging noisily into the sliding glass door. Tally fell, landing clumsily on the balcony.

Finally, blackness. Tally let the dark rise up and consume her. She didn't hear the sliding glass door opening, or the cold hands pulling her up. Thought her haze of dizziness and pain, however, she did hear one thing before passing out cold; a chillingly familiar voice in her ear-

"Look who's returned. It's my last _special_ special."


	5. Chapter 5

Tally was aware of half-stumbling, half being carried through the door. Even though her limbs were completely worn out and useless, her brain was working at a mile a minute.

So _this_ was where Dr. Cable lived. It looked like a late-pretty apartment. Maybe it was just Tally's shot cognitive centers, but it felt like the room had squashed, too-narrow dimensions. Even though it was painted and carpeted in neutral tones, just like any other middle-pretty apartment, its ceiling was slightly to too low and the walls too close, giving the impression that the room had once been used for a different purpose.

Tally wondered if her vision was acting up, because the whole room seemed to be a awfully dark. The neutral tones of the walls and carpet blended together in the low light, giving the place a lifeless, monochromatic feel.

In the far back of the one room apartment, there was a low bed, neatly made, and covered in a generic spread. Off the main room, there was miniscule bathroom. Along on of the long walls were four white supply closets, stretching up to the ceiling. Closer to the window, where Dr. Cable had been working, there was a desk, the hole-in-the-wall and a wallscreen.

The one table in the room was small, angular, and made for seating only one person at a time. It had a bench seat that was built into the wall behind it, probably to save space in the cramped room.

Dr. Cable practically carried Tally to that seat and laid her down on it. She then started rummaging around in her desk, looking for something in a lower draw. While she was doing that, Tally realized that her vision _wasn't_ going crazy. In the entire apartment, there were no lights on at all. Not even lumi-strips around the corners. The gray tinged sky outside was the only source of light illuminating the room.

Tally had recovered enough by now to comprehend something. She had made it here! All by herself, she had covered nearly a thousand miles, even with a debilitating injury. That showed them! Shay had thought she was as helpless as a littlie!

A ping of joy buzzed through her, followed by a ping of trepidation. she had made it here, but now what? What would Dr. Cable do to her? What if Shay's fears had been right? What if it had been she, _Tally,_ who had been acting irrational by coming here? The muscles in her stomach rippled uneasily.

Tally suddenly lost confidence in her decision. Why hadn't she thought this through more? There was nothing she could do now. Tally doubted she could even lift a leg, let alone run away. She was stuck, whether she liked it or not.

Dr. Cable came back to the table, a small medical scanner in hand, and began to look Tally over. Tally stiffened instinctively, but even that little action caused a roar of pain to fill her arm. Dr. Cable zeroed in on Tally's injured arm almost immediately, and her eyes narrowed as she consulted the scanner.

"Hmm," she said "It looks like you've managed to break my ulna and radius implants in _seven_ locations. That is not an easy thing to do, epically not with the ceramics I designed."

Seven breaks? When Tally had thought of her arm as shattered, she had been hyperbolizing a tad. But _seven_ fractures in a bone really did make her arm flattened. Tally had no idea it was really _that_ bad.

Dr. Cable went the cabinets in the back of her apartment, and returned with a small syringe. Tally recoiled from it, using all her strength. Mysterious syringes in the hands of Dr. Cable were _not_ good. For all Tally knew, it would knock her out, giving Dr. Cable plenty of time to turn her into her _next_ greatest creation.

"Relax," Dr. Cable said, her voice filled with sarcastic patience, "It's _just_ a pain-killer. Even if you're not letting on to it, I _know_ you're in serious pain. But if you want to be brave and bear it, go ahead. _I_ certainly won't stop you."

Tally gave in. She had spent six whole days submersed in a world of agony, and she wanted to be able to think straight again. Tally remained tense, but allowed Dr. Cable to inject her arm.

Dr. Cable continued scanning, "_And_ you are severally dehydrated. This is simply not permissible." Her voice was as could as liquid nitrogen. "I gave you strength and speed, but there was no way for me to fill you vacuous head with _intelligence,"_ Tally flinched, but not because of the insult.

For a moment she had been transported back to another time. If she shut her eyes, she could see herself, an agent of Special Circumstances again, returning from a long mission. They had done perfectly, fulfilling the exact parameters of their assignment. But Dr. Cable _never_ gave praise, never, choosing only to see where they had slipped or stumbled. She had the ability to picky fault out of faultlessness.

Then she would deal out the only punishment that could hurt a special- cruel harsh words, each syllable a blow to their self images. When ever they would close their eyes after that, the words would be ever present- _you are stupid, worthless, weak. _

You'd think that words could have no effect. You'd think you could shrug them off. You'd think wrong. Her words were always precision crafted to slice deeply, and lodge themselves permanently their minds. Calculated for pain. Dr. Cable was the only person who could hurt a special.

But that was then. Tally had grown, she was no longer a brain-missing minion.

Dr. Cable's words could not hurt her. She simply would not let them.

Tally opened her defend herself, preparing a speech that would valiantly settle the score. But it wouldn't come.

Her mouth was too dry.

"I-," she managed to choke out. But Dr. Cable cut her off before she began

"No, drink this." She said, pushing a bottle of water into her hand.

Tally wanted to refuse- to prove that she _wasn't_ weak, she _didn't_ need help- but the water just looked so _good_. Tally couldn't remember how long ago it was when she had last stopped at a stream. Had she ever? Her mouth was suddenly burning with dryness. For a few movements, a heated battle between will and craving consumed her. Her craving for water won out and she grabbed for the bottle.

Tally drank gratefully. Dr. Cable surveyed her, a strange look coming into her eyes. "What _have_ you been up too, my little special? A broken bone doesn't account for your thirst or fatigue."

Between gulps, Tally answered, "I flew here -five days straight -withoutstopping," before taking another swig of the precious fluid.

Despite the fact that she was guzzling down water as fast as she could, Tally didn't take her eyes off Dr. Cable. There was a pause, and Dr. Cable blinked her eyes rapidly. Was Tally imagining it, or did she look stunned?

" You hoverboarded here, on your own, with incapacitating injuries that would have made others loose consciousness. And then, after that and 120 hours awake, you can still function?" A gleam of triumph lit the her eyes,

"Incredible," she breathed.

"Why are you so surprised?" Tally panted "That's the way you _designed_ me."

That comment only made Dr. Cable more smug. "Oh, yes, I know. Its just that my handiwork _still_ never ceases to amaze me."

Tally was about to object to being referred to as 'handiwork', but Dr. Cable kept speaking, her voice suddenly soft. "I didn't think I'd ever get to see one of my specials exhibit such a feat of durability again."

There was a pause. Tally noticed how old Dr. Cable looked. Had her face always been that wrinkled? Her features still had the sharp characteristics of a special, but all the harsh icy-ness of the pre-mind rain days had drained out of them, leaving only weariness and bitterness. It was like the special cure had taken all the fight out of her.

Dr. Cable had leaned back in the chair she had dragged over from the desk, and was now surveying Tally with undisguised interest. "Why _were_ you in such a rush to get here? I would have thought you could have handled the pain long for a few sips of water, at least." What ever softness had been in her voice was gone now. It had returned the chastising derision Tally knew and hate.

"I didn't want Shay to catch up to me."

"Ah," she said, "I was going to ask where your Cutter friends are." Tally could hear another well disguised insult coming on, but her tone abruptly changed. Her voice softened and became husky. Tally couldn't tell if she was being sly, or if she was genuinely regretful.

"They don't trust me, do they?"

It was no use trying to be sensitive.

"No."

There was another, longer, pause. Tally didn't look at Dr. Cable, instead casting her gaze around the dimly lit apartment. Another strange thing about the place, Tally realized that there wasn't a single personal item in the whole room. The walls were bare of pictures, and the book shelf held nothing but medical encyclopedias.

Dr. Cable finally spoke again, her voice distant and detached "You need rest," Tally looked up, "but first I want you out of that filthy sneak suit" Dr. Cable went to the wall and ordered up a clean pair of shorts, and a loose shirt. Not Tally's first choice, but at least it wasn't a hospital gown. She changed quickly when the doctor's back was turned. When she was finished, she stumbled over to the bed.

To be on the safe side, Tally started to set her system to wake her up every ten minuets. It was mostly out of habit, but she still wasn't sure about Dr. Cable's motives yet.

Surprisingly, Dr. Cable noticed her characteristic finger twitches. Maybe not so surprisingly, seeing as she was the one who had designed the system. With surprisingly fast reflexes, she grabbed Tally's hand to stop her. They stared at each other for a fraction of a second. The doctor's grip was startlingly strong.

"You need real rest, not the on-guard awareness cycles. If your going to heal, you have to be fully asleep."

She saw the suspicion in Tally's eyes, but continued on unabashedly. "I insist. If you don't go to sleep, I'll be forced to anesnitize you. And in your current condition, I really don't think you could stop me." That was not something you could say to a special. Tally's eyes narrowed in a expression of contempt, but it was an empty gesture. In her present state, probably even a crumblie could overcome her, and Dr. Cable obviously retained some of the special augmentations she had given herself.

Dr. Cable released Tally's hand and watched her climb into bed. Tally was still resolved to program her system to ten minute pings, anyway, the moment the Dr. Cable's back was turned. But Tally was out cold before her head touched the pillow.


	6. Chapter 6

**I know its taken a long time to update- I'm very sorry about that. I haven't written anything for this story in a while, so I figured I'd post everything I have left, then bring it to a close. This will be the last chapter I post. The story is in no way done, but I am. The purpose of this fanfic was to explore the relationship between Tally and Dr. Cable after Extras, and I feel like like I've met that goal. So read on and enjoy! Thanks to everyone who has read/reviewed/followed this story- you guys rock!**

* * *

When she woke up, the first thing she noticed was that the room was no longer gray. Instead, it was lit with the soft yellow rays of early morning sunlight. The second thing she noticed was that there was an IV drip in her arm.

Tally panicked. Her foggy mind jumped to the conclusion that she had some how ended up back in the hospital and had been changed into a bubble-head. She tried to jump to her feet, but her sore muscles sent a spasm of pain up her spine and she fell back on the pillow. She landed heavily on her right arm, which was starting to throb again. A small groan escaped her lips.

The third thing she noticed was that the pain had suddenly made her icy-headed.

She was still special.

Dr. Cable, sipping a cup of coffee, was sitting at the small table watching her struggles with an amused smile.

"You never think first, do you? Always leaping into action before thinking things through." She shook her head. "_Relax_, its just some fluids."

Oh.

Tally stared at her for a second before finding her voice, waiting for the sudden burst of icy energy to disperse. After the long sleep, she finally had regained enough energy to talk normally. She had a massive headache, and her arm was still giving her twinges of pain whenever she so much as breathed on it. But it was noting she couldn't handle, especially compared to the last couple of days.

Now that she could think clearly, a million questions bubbled up in her mind. She was going to get right to the point, the exact reason she was here, but remembered Dr. Cable's words from a few seconds ago.

_ You never think first, do you? Always leaping into action before thinking things through. _

Tally still had no idea if she could trust her yet, or if it was a good idea to jump in and lay her cards on the table. At the movement, Tally could really only think of one way to start gauging Dr. Cable's motives- plain, old, simple conversation.

Now, all she had to do was find something to talk _about_. She didn't really judge Dr. Cable as much of a small-talk person. Casting her eyes innocently around the room, Tally settled on the large white cabinets filled with medical supplies. For such a small apartment, it took up an awfully large amount of space.

"So," Tally ventured "why do you have all this stuff here? Shouldn't it be at the hospital?" Even post mind-rain, Tally couldn't see the city becoming wasteful of a large cache of valuable medical equipment "And why do you live here? Shouldn't you be in the suburbs?"

"Ah, _finally_ the questions," Dr. Cable drawled "I forgot how much I missed your ignorant naiveté." The comment was clearly meant to be belittling, but for some reason, it didn't pack as much punch as it would have in the old days.

"As you probably guessed, HQ no longer exists." She continued "They turned it into an office building for pencil pushing city lawmakers." She snorted bitterly. "If they managed to get into the basement, they probably found some pretty _unusual _stuff."

Her eyebrows twitched. The basement rooms were where Dr. Cable had transformed pretties into superhuman specials. Tally could only guess what strange things the baffled city doctors had found when they had cleared out the operating theaters.

She continued "Anyway, as for the supplies, I couldn't see that those city _imbeciles _had any particular use for them, so I simply kept them."  
Tally could tell from her tone that she had probably just walked off with them. But why did she want them? Was she practicing medicine in this squashed apartment? Tally looked around for an examination table, but she didn't see one, and there was no place to hide it in the cramped dimensions.

A strange though occurred to Tally. The room held no personal belongings of any sort. The stash of medical supplies was probably the only thing Dr. Cable had brought with her when she had moved in. So why did she want them? A thought occurred to Tally. The white closets held momentous of the past Dr. Cable had been forced to give up. In a way, they almost _were_ personal belonging, carrying memories from the pinnacle of her rather warped career.

Tally was very sure the city wasn't letting her practice medicine anymore. What was she doing? The society Tally left behind was adamant about not wasting anything, especially people. Once you had your middle-pretty operation, you were expected to work for the well-being of the city, in what ever way you could.

"So then, if you don't, you know, run the specials program anymore, what _do _you do?" Tally asked cautiously.

"Oh, the city has found some way for me to continue _'contributing_'." She put a sour emphasis on the word. Tally had never heard her sound so bitter. "Mostly meaningless legi-medical paperwork. Balancing budgets, organizing outdated hospital records, the like. It's a _shocking_ waste of my talents. Other than that I have nothing to do but watch the pointless council debates on the wall screen."

There was a pause. Tally could feel Dr. Cable's intense gaze studying her. When she spoke again, her voice was soft. "You can't _imagine_ how excited I was when _you_ fell off my roof."

Tally sighed. Dr. Cable had probably been positively _thrilled_ when she found out about Tally's broken bones. It was obvious that she loathed her new life as a secretary, spending her waking hours sorting through the obsolete records of long dead crumblies. After months of dull desk work, a chance to work on a special project again was doubtlessly making her positively ecstatic. Tally had been right- in a weird way, Dr. Cable _was_ happy to see her again.

There was a silence. "Are you hungry?" Dr. Cable finally asked.

When Tally shook her head, she continued "You can't fool _me_, I'm not impressed by you displays of fortitude. Special-stomached or not, after five days, I _know_ your hungry."

When Tally made no reply, she continued "I do have a feeding tube in those cupboards, you know."

So Tally ordered some toast and a glass of juice out of the wall. The two sat in silence as Tally munched her toast and Dr. Cable finished her coffee. Tally was struck by the strangeness of it all. Here she was, calmly eating breakfast with her former arch-enemy. She hadn't expected Dr. Cable to be so… approachable.

It was a strange thing to say. By anyone else's standards, Dr. Cable was still extremely off-putting. Sour and seeping in her own perceived superiority and pride, most people would rank her among the most cold-hearted people they had ever met. But Tally had known her in the old days. She would take this Dr. Cable any day over the caustic, evil woman she had been as head of the special program.

She still harbored a massive ego, and could spit words like guided missiles, but Tally wasn't as intimidated by her anymore. Back in the special days, she had had the power the strike terror into the heart of anyone, pretty-faced or not. She had practically ruled the city.

Yet here Tally was now, watching her sip coffee in her slippers.

When Dr. Cable looked up and made eye contact, Tally quickly looked out the balcony door across the wet grass. Approachable as she was, Tally still didn't want her to know she had been staring.

It was just then Tally noticed how high the sun was.

"How long was I out for?"

"You were asleep for approximately 18.5 hours."

Tally was stunned. She had never slept for that long before. Oh, sure, she had been kept under by drugs for that long, but as for sleeping naturally?

"Its quite remarkable, really," said Dr. Cable, a familiar note of pride creeping back into her voice "A pretty having gone through what you did would have slept for _at least_ 36 hours. But of course, she wouldn't have managed to keep her self conscience long enough to even _get_ here."

Frankly, Dr. Cable's excessive praise of her own work was a little wearing.

"Well, _I'm_ not a pretty."

To Tally's surprise, Dr. Cable let out a short barking laugh. The only laugh Tally had ever heard her use was a cold, merciless chuckle. She was certainly in a good mood all of a sudden. In fact, this might be the happiest Tally had ever seen her.

There was an awkward silence after this. Eating a sit down meal had reminded Tally of how sore and gross she felt. So she decided to partake in one of the few advantages of city living; a hot soapy shower.

Sneak suits supposedly pulled dead skin cells and sweat to the surface, keeping the wearer from accumulating awful BO. It worked, to a point. No matter how advanced the technology was though, it would never compare to a _real_, hot, steamy shower.

The warm water turned out to an incredible remedy for sore muscles. Tally turned it up to full, and relaxed for the first time in ages. She grabbed handfuls of the generic shampoo she found on the counter and massaged it into her hair and skin. When Tally finally stepped out of Dr. Cable's small bathroom, she felt as good as new, ready to take on the world again.

Except of course, for her crushed arm. The pain was beginning to mount again.

When Tally left the bathroom, dressed in a terrycloth bathrobe from the wall, she found that Dr. Cable hadn't moved an inch from where she had been sitting. Tally cautiously sat down across from the doctor again.

To Tally's surprise, Dr. Cable seemed lost in thought. She was gazing out the window, and didn't seemed to notice that she had returned. Tally was ogling at the strange behavior, when Dr. Cable suddenly snapped out of it.

"Arm," she said abruptly.

Tally held out her damaged limb. Dr. Cable grasped it rather roughly to examine it. Tally let out an inaudible gasp of pain, which apparently was _not_ inaudible to Dr. Cable's enhanced hearing.

"Ah, so it still hurts. Well, I suppose _that's_ to be expected… I wonder if any breakdown of tissue has occurred…" She was talking more to herself than to Tally.

Tally broke through the Dr. Cable's murmurs. "So, do you think you'll be able to fix it?"

The doctor snorted. "_Fix_ it? I _designed_ it! I could fix you bones in my sleep!"

Prideful as she was, it wasn't like her to make boasts. She would, however make statements, "I _can _make specials" or "I _can_ ruin your life". Tally noticed the difference.

"Could? You _could_ fix my arm? What's stopping you?"

Dr. Cable looked Tally in the eye. Her gaze was every bit as icy as it once had been.

"You really haven't figured it out yet, have you?" She shook her head sadly as if was disappointed with Tally's lack of inference ability.

"Did you really think that the city officials would let me walk free after the _'crimes' _I've committed? " She pursed her lips like only an _imbecile _would think abducting people and turning them into a privet army was a crime.

"Tally," she said softly "I'm not allowed to leave this _house_."

Tally gasped. She had heard of people being given community service as a punishment, but never _house arrest_. Taking away someone's freedom was so… _Rusty_!She had expected Dr. Cable to have been reprimanded in some way, certainly, discredited in the medical community or something, but she had never expected _this_.

"Oh, yes," Dr. Cable replied to Tally's shocked expression, "I'm not allowed out without an escort, and I have to wear this-" Dr. Cable pulled up her sleeve to reveal the very same interface bracelet she and Zane had been forced wear, way back as tricky pretties.

"Ironic, isn't it?"

But Tally wasn't paying attention anymore. A wave of alarm swept through her. She happened to know that bracelet very, _very_ well, and she also knew that it was equipped with powerful listening in bugs. Right now, the city could be eavesdropping on everything she was saying!

Dr. Cable had just said her name. That had done it. Even if the city hadn't known who their captive's mysterious guest had been before, they knew now. How many people named Tally could there be who would pay a visit to Dr. Cable? _They knew she was here, _and they were probably sending people to capture her right now.

Tally leapt to here feet not really knowing where she was going. Where had she left her hoverboard? Tally could feel Dr. Cable eying her, smiling slightly. Didn't she understand how serious this was? Tally frantically made the universal "be quiet!" sign, pressing her finger to her lips. This only caused Dr. Cable to chuckle.

"Tally, Tally. Don't you _ever_ stop to think things through?"

Tally stared at her. How could she be so calm? Didn't Dr. Cable realize she didn't stand a chance at escaping a contingent of armed wardens without the use of her right arm?

"Calm down. Do you think I would have let slip that you were here? _Really_? No, I removed the listening device from the bracelet _ages_ ago."

She lifted up her sleeve again. Now that Tally examined the thing closer, she noticed the chuck missing from it. There was a rectangular depression where the recorder and transmitters had been.

Tally was stunned, and a little curious. "How… how did you manage to get rid of the thing?" The bracelet was made out of an incredibly hard material; she knew that much from first-hand experience.

"Oh, I didn't get _rid_ of it. I still have it, it in my desk draw, all wrapped up. I bring it out every once and a while and let it pick up on things, just so who ever is listing doesn't get suspicious. As for how I got it _out, _though, that's a trade secret."

Tally nodded numbly, the adrenaline leaving her system. If Dr. Cable wasn't telling, Tally wasn't going to bother trying to pry it out of her. That would be an utter waster of time. "Does the tracking device still work?" she asked.

Dr. Cable huffed. "Unfortunately, yes. It turned out to be far more _durable_ then the listening component."

So, she had somehow removed the listening device of the bracelet, but that was only half the battle. The tracking device was embedded deep within the bracelet, with no way to sabotage it. It looked like Dr. Cable wasn't going anywhere with out city permission, let alone to the hospital to fix a fugitive special's arm.

"So," Tally said slowly "If you can't go anywhere without them finding you- and me. So, if I want to get my arm fixed, then I guess I'll just have to go to Diego…"

Dr. Cable's expression suddenly turned savage. "No! I will not have some bubble-headed doctor from _that_ city performing surgery on _my _special!"

"But-"

"No!" She sniffed "They'd _never_ be able to figure out the complexities of _my_ design. They'd mar my perfect work with half-baked _butchery_!"

Tally inhaled. She'd suspected this might happen. Dr. Cable wasn't about to forfeit the chance to use her _special_ expertise to some bumbling Deigo surge doctor, who was only experienced with making bubbleheads and grafting snakes onto people's little fingers.

"Alright, OK!" Tally said, attempting to calm her down, "I won't go to Diego then. But unless you have an operating tank in those cupboards…"

"No, you know very well that I don't have what I need here." Dr. Cable snapped "Somehow, I'll have to get into the hospital, or better yet, my old office. "

"But obviously, the city officials aren't exactly going to let us just walk into those places…"

If Tally was ever going to regain use of her right hand, she was going to have to find a way to get them into the hospital. Instantly, her mind jumped to all sorts of special-brained possibilities- blowing up the city hall to cause a diversion, barricading herself in the hospital, holding the mayor hostage… but she reigned herself in. If this was going to work, she had to be subtle to avoid being caught and despecialized.

No, they were going to have to do this under the radar. And that meant liberating Dr. Cable of her tracking device. They couldn't go anywhere, without getting caught at least, until the device was off. Easier said than done.

Tally remembered how she had done it in the pretty days; starving herself for weeks, and then using the heat to expand the metal enough to pull it off her wrist. Tally didn't really have the time or energy for such a complicated heist, but she suggested it anyway. It was the only plan she could come up with off the top of her head.

"You could get the metal to expand by putting it under some heat source, like a hot air balloon burner, say. I could get some fire-proof gloves so it wouldn't burn your hand off. Then we could just _pull_ the thing off."

Dr. Cable snorted, the corners of her mouth turning up ever-so-slightly "I suppose that's how your little gang of pretties did it then? I always wondered about that…"

But then she shook her head "But really Tally. Be reasonable. Do you _really_ think the citywouldn't notice you bringing a hot air balloon all the way from New-Pretty town, and landing it on my door step? I know you're tired, but are you really _that_ tired?" She asked sarcastically.

"Well, how else could you get that thing off?" Tally was exhausted. She had expected a quick fix, not having to deal with _this_, too.

"Tally, think, seriously! Do you honestly think the city would have left your bracelet on you for the rest of your life?"

"Urm, yeah, I mean why wouldn't they?" Tally didn't have energy to have a long drawn out debate. She needed her bone fixed _now_.

"Of course they wouldn't have! That's not how our city works. They pride themselves on the fact that we didn't need shackles and prisons to contain people. We had better methods." Her eyes flashed dangerously.

Tally shivered. Her statement had suddenly reminded Tally that Dr. Cable had been a substantial part of those pre-mind rain "containment" procedures. She had worked on the lesions, perfecting them and using them in her own projects. And that fact had made Dr. Cable her enemy, at least in the old days.

Dr. Cable continued "Once you had received the middle-pretty operation, they would have removed your bracelet. They would have given you a second, probably more potent than normal, lesion treatment, then sent you on your way. What ever the procedure, they would have made sure you couldn't cause them anymore headache, and so you wouldn't have needed the device." She spoke very matter-of-factly, which Tally suspected was from years of insider experience.

Tally honestly had never thought of it like that. Pretty life was supposed to seem eternal, a whole life filled with nothing but pleasure and excitement, and so hadn't ever thought foreword a middle-pretty life. She and Zane had always thought of the bracelets as a permanent obstacle, something that they'd have to deal with forever. But of course, back then, she hadn't had lesions to factor into the picture.

"They would have removed it while the patent was under, certainly. So, _Obviously_, they have to have some other way of doing that, _besides_ sticking patients' arms in a burner. " Dr. Cable pursed her lips, like that imaged was amusing to her, but she couldn't bring herself to laugh outright.

Tally's head was throbbing again. "So," She clarified "you think they have some sort of device that can take the tracking devices off? Small and portable they could have in an operating room?"

"No, I-"

Tally interrupted the doctor, something she had always been too afraid to do before. "Then why are we wasting time speculating? I need a solution _now_!"

For a moment Dr. Cable looked stunned, but quickly changed her expression to one of haughtily bemusement.

"No, Tally, I don't think there is such a device. I _know_ there is. I was the one who built it."

"Oh."

"Yes, I was not the designer of these infernal contrivance," She said, clenching the fist of the arm with the bracelet "but I did collaborate, and I designed the system to remove them." She wasn't about to let Tally get away with interrupting her thought. Her voice assumed a perfectly even tone, even as she razed her with her sharp eyes "As you may remember, I was quite good with tracking devices, back in the day."

There was a slight hint of mocking in her voice that made Tally's blood boil. Oh yes, she did remember. Dr. Cable's tracking devices had caused her a huge amount of anguish over the past few years.

Dr. Cable laid out where she thought the remover was being stored. Tracking bracelets were no longer used regularly. In fact, Dr. Cable believed her was probably the only one left. That meant the device for removing them would be near the hospital, but probably not right in the heart of it, seeing as it took up space and probably wasn't used often. Dr. Cable pulled up a map of the building on the wall screen, and pointed out a small storage building adjacent to the main structure.

"Many pieces of less-frequently used equipment are stored here," She said tapping the board, "And my best guess it that that is also where you can find the bracelet-removing device." She paused to push a few strands of gray hair out of her face "Security around the hospital is rather stringent, but I don't believe any particular attention has been paid to this depot."

Tally sat at the table, cradling her arm and absorbing the details of the briefing. She wasn't back up to her peak strength yet, and she hadn't expected to have to do this sort of legwork to get her arm fixed. Still, Tally was not one to let minor difficulties get in the way of her goal. She wanted her arm repaired, and if getting this device it what it took, then that's what she was going to do. Actually, the prospect of a good ol' fashioned infiltration mission was rather thrilling, especially after having done nothing but fly and sleep the last few days.

Tally decided to wait until it was dark. They ate an evening meal at the small table in silence. Dr. Cable had wanted to go over the details of the heist again, but Tally declined. The plan was simple- break in, find the thing, get out, and make sure you don't get caught. They'd gone through it twice already, and Tally didn't need to hear it again. It was such an easy maneuver, that in normal circumstances, Tally could have done it in her sleep. Her damaged arm added a little more difficulty tonight, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. Of course, Tally told herself, that was the whole point of her existence- to be_ able_ to handle less-than-normal circumstances. _Special _circumstances, in fact.

Though, Tally had to admit, it was rather refreshing to have Dr. Cable fussing over the plan. She couldn't count the times the Cutters had gotten brief and unspecific mission outlines, uploaded straight to eyescreens, and had had to work out the rest for themselves. Dr. Cable had been a very busy person back then, had hadn't had the time to micro-manage every little aspect of a mission.

In the glory days of Special Circumstances, Dr. Cable had been able to calculate the exact amount of she could get out of an agent, and she was not afraid to demand that full measure from anyone. She was indifferent to what they felt about it, she simply expected that her orders got done no matter how hard they were. But now, Tally got the feeling that the Dr. Cable didn't exactly_ know_ how much she could ask of Tally anymore.


End file.
